God and Knowledge: Herman Bavinck's Theological Epistemology

by Nathaniel Gray Sutanto, Ian A. McFarland (Editor), Ivor J. Davidson (Editor)

Nathaniel Gray Sutanto offers a fresh reading of Herman Bavinck’s theological epistemology, and argues that his Trinitarian and organic worldview utilizes an extensive range of sources. Sutanto unfolds Bavinck’s understanding of what he considered to be the two most important aspects of the character of the sciences and the correspondence between subjects and objects. Writing at the heels of the European debates in the 19th and 20th century concerning theology’s place in the academy, and rooted in historic Christian teachings, Sutanto demonstrates how Bavinck’s argument remains fresh and provocative. This volume explores archival material and peripheral works translated for the first time in English. The author re-reads several key concepts, ranging from Organicism to the Absolute, and relates Bavinck’s work to Thomas Aquinas, Eduard von Hartmann, and other thinkers. Sutanto applies this reading to current debates on the relationship between theology and philosophy, nature and grace, and the nature of knowing; and in doing so provides students and scholars with fresh methods of considering Orthodox and modern forms of thought, and their connection with each other.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology

208 pages, Paperback

Published September 9, 2021

Reviews

[Scott Bielinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sutanto’s keen reading of Bavinck shows how his theological epistemology coheres in a recurring “organic motif.” At the foundation of this motif is Bavinck’s doctrine of God. God’s triune character impresses itself upon the creation in such a way that creation must reflect God’s three-in-one-ness. Thus, there is unity in diversity (though unity precedes diversity), and this unity in creation is reflective of God’s own unity. Sutanto points out that Bavinck is indeed “defending and modifying the medieval notion that creation bears the vestiges of God” (21). From here, he outlines how this organic motif displays itself in his theology proper, anthropology, and doctrine of revelation, specifically how “the two modes of revelation [general and special] link together” (37). Here, especially, shows some of Bavinck’s received Romantic influences.

The rest of the book shows how this motif informs Bavincks’s epistemology, accounting for his eclectic use of sources (Eduard Von Hartmann, Aquinas, Kant, Schopenhauer, Calvin, etc.), putting to rest the “two Bavincks” hypothesis. In truth, per Sutanto, Bavinck can’t quite be identified with one particular thinker, and “his views of realism and idealism contribute to the emerging understanding that the relationship of the two cannot be characterized as a mere opposite” (15). This last point is an especially interesting one that takes Sutanto a few chapters to fully flesh out (Ch. 5-7). Though Bavinck is highly critical of subjective idealism, he remains sympathetic to how absolute idealism can help answer the subject-object question. Of course, Bavinck completely avoids the attendant ontological monism, constantly stressing the Creator-Creature distinction. Moreover, that Bavinck can’t be identified specifically with one thinker means that Sutanto reconfigures how we ought to think of Bavinck’s relationship to Aquinas: “That Bavinck uses the organic motif to shape his theological epistemology suggests, therefore, that past descriptions of Bavinck’s epistemology as mere reproductions of Thomism should be modified” (76). Specifically, Bavinck does not uncritically accept Thomas’ understanding of perception. In the end, Sutanto offers a very sophisticated and careful reading of Bavinck.

This reading of Bavinck protects him from being co-opted into one of the more frustrating elements of popular retrieval theology: the complete dismissal of all modern philosophy. Sutanto clearly demonstrates how Bavinck operates in a post-Kantian philosophical milieu and often expresses himself in that philosophical grammar while remaining sufficiently critical of it. Sutanto’s conclusion calls for future theologians to consider emulating Bavinck’s spirit to see how the Reformed orthodox tradition can answer the questions posed by phenomenology or analytic philosophy. I think Bavinck would be an especially fruitful dialogue partner with the former.

Sutanto is a careful reader and highly attuned to his theological/philosophical context. In this way, Sutanto’s own work models that of Bavinck’s spirit and method. The only thing this book is missing is a section on the original philosophical context and development of the organic motif. This book is tough-sledding but very rewarding. Bonus points, too, for showing Bonaventure some love.

[John Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sutanto makes a very strong case here for a more balanced and refined reading of Bavinck's epistemology. More importantly (I think), his engagement with Bavinck's epistemology provides great insight into how modern Reformed theology (and all theologies for that matter) can engage in modern philosophical discourse - we needn't fear sacrificing orthodoxy for modernity.

[Noah Lykins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pairs well with Sutanto’s new Sense of the Divine. Affective phenomenology, through the Neo-Cal lens, organic-eclectic-psychosomatic wholism against mechanical reductionism, idealism, and overestimating intellectual assent in ‘natural’ theology.

onmiddelijk (immediate) revelation
indrukken (impressions)
beseffen (intuitions or awareness)
werkelijkheid, voorstelling (reality, representation)